CO2 Emission Embodied in International Trade: Evidence for China


  •  Hailing Zhang    

Abstract

As the biggest developing country, China generate huge amount of CO2 emissions. Some studies suggest that export trade is an important contributor to this, and China has been the pollution haven for developed countries. A few developed countries also treat this as an excuse to take measures to punish China. This study calculates the amount of CO2 emissions of 18 exporting industries in China using the data from 2001 to 2010. The findings reveal that the amount of CO2 emissions is the result of export volume multiplying carbon emission per unit export. Carbon emission per unit export is dropping year by year, as the total amount of CO2 emissions is rising year by year. As a result, the major contributor to huge amount of CO2 emissions in export is the increasing volume of export inducing by abroad consumption. Empirical study also reveals that China has not been the pollution haven for developed countries.



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